A Ruby Inside
by DreamWings231
Summary: Kimball and Doyle bonding and growing friendship dabbles with Kimball saying Ruby quotes.
1. Normal Knees

This is basically dabbles of Kimball saying Ruby quotes.

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"Miss Kimball," Doyle said after they left the Reds and Blues and returned to Kimball's meeting room to discuss more on the matter of Fed and News treaty and Chorus going to war with an UNSC Chairman, "I believe a proper handshake is in order for our alliance. We are going to see each other on friendly terms so we might as well be acquainted as comrades." Doyle unclipped his helmet, his dark brown helmet hair tousled and he offered a gentleman smile, "Donald Doyle, please to have you, well not attacking my army."

"I'm glad that we're no longer fighting as well, Doyle," Kimball took off her helmet, her black bangs framing her brown and scarred face, "Vanessa Kimball, ready to fight by your side for our plant."

She out stretched her hand for a handshake that Doyle accepted but his focus was on her face.

Doyle's brows scrunched together, "I didn't think you'd look so young, you look like you're in your early twenties!"

"Well, I've been in this army for a long time," Kimball placed her helmet on the panel table of the room with Doyle following her action. "By the time I became the leader of the New Republic, I didn't think of myself, I thought of the younger soldiers that needed a leader when our previous ones died trying."

"You've endured a lot, I always knew that war has hardships on both sides but," Doyle sighed, placing his hands on the panel, on screen was various of documents of the war and low resources of the New Republic before the treaty, "I was never ready to accept the reality of war, how anyone I met could just die the next day. This position was given to me and I did take as much responsibility as I possibly can but I am not a soldier. You on the other hand, Kimball, you are both a fighter and a leader."

She only smiled at the complimenting words, her eyes scanning the article of the Reds and Blues and how it reminds her of their first meeting, "What are you trying to do? Make me blush?"

Kimball chuckled at Doyle's baffled expression, stuttering, "What? No, never, this is strictly professional Kimball!"

"Relax, I'm only teasing. I've been around Tucker," she said, as if that explains everything.

"Ah yes, Private Tucker," Doyle coughed in attempt to regain his composure, "Agent Washington once mentioned his um behavior."

"He's not as bad as you think he is," Kimball shrugged, "It only took threatening him to radioactive lake to get him to stop flirting with me."

At the corner of her eye, Doyle almost looked sacred of her, "Um well, you can certainly take care of yourself and an army for the matter, your soldier must idolize you like the Reds and Blues."

"I wouldn't know that, I'm just a normal person with normal knees."

There was a brief silence when Doyle asked, "That was a joke of how Doctor Grey amputates my soldiers correct?"

"Yeah, Tucker told me about her. She seems like a nice lady."

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Thanks for reading!


	2. It's Also A Gun

A couple of days passed and only a small fraction of the New Republic was still at the cave base, waiting to be transferred to the Capital where the rest of Kimball's soldiers were. The Reds and Blues were elsewhere, keeping Doyle and Kimball in the loop of their actions but so far nothing out of the ordinary other than Captain Grif and his squad stealing food.

Kimball was in her office, sorting out and packing her belongings in boxes to be sent with her to the Capital. She was stacking the boxes in a pile when Doyle knocked on her door.

"Hello, Kimball, I'm here to remind you that I was supposed to meet you with your soldiers at the Capital on the first draft, not the last one."

The black women taped a box closed, amused to see the general armorless like herself, "You came down from the Capital to see me? Wow I flattered."

"I simply want to discuss more on our plans on the war," Doyle walked over to her, helping her transfer the boxes outside to her personal jeep, "I was hoping to have our meetings with the other captains at the Capital where it's more secure from space pirates."

Doyle followed Kimball back inside, "Sorry for the delay, Doyle, I just wanted to make sure that all my soldiers are at the Capital without unwanted attention. There's just one last thing in my office to pick up."

She typed in a code on the wall panel, activating it to open up like a closet, revealing its package to the two leaders.

Doyle gapped at the sight of the unique object hanging on the wall, "What in the world; is that a scythe?"

Kimball took the weapon in her hands, "It's also a customizable, high impact sniper rifle."

"Um, excuse me?"

"It's also a gun."

"Does it work?" Doyle gazed over the mechanical scythe in wonder and amazement.

With a press of a button, Kimball activated the scythe to morph into a smaller, more compact form, "No, none of the bullets I have fit in it, I have to make the bullets that perfectly suit the gun with some special material. Unfortunately I don't have the original schematics or blueprints of the scythe and the bullets that need something with dust, that part make much sense when an old engineer explained it to me."

They walked back to the jeep and hopped in, Kimball taking the wheel and letting Doyle hold the scythe, "Why don't you just dismantle it?"

"I don't really want to, it actual belonged to a relative of mine, I don't know who though," she drove off to the drop ship, "I think the name was a bird or a jewel."

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Thanks for reading!


	3. Magnets Are Cool

The Capital base felt almost foreign to the New Republic. They spent years on a war to take over the Capital, to start a new life on Chorus but all it took was colorful space marines to help them settle their differences.

A loud crashing noise boomed over the Capital.

The Feds and News are still working things out.

Down at the garage complexes where all the vehicles, engineers, and a certain Federal general was at, all soldiers stared at the utter mess two inventors have made with their new invention they demonstrated for Doyle.

"It, ah, wasn't supposed to do that," the Federal inventor trailed off as the Republic inventor switched down the lever to turn off the giant machine.

"We shouldn't have done this in the garage, Gibbs," the Republic inventor said and visor-palmed, "Why did we think that wasn't a bad idea?"

"Boys," Doyle walked up to the two soldiers, they immediately tensed up and stood at attention, "Just what makes you think that activating magnetic in a garage was a good idea!"

"For the record sir," the Republic soldier weakly corrected, "It's a giant magnet."

They all turned their heads back to the magnet when all the metal scraps and vehicles started to collapse on themselves from the lack of magnetic pull.

Footsteps approached from behind the three, "Private Gibbins and Private Allen, what is this mess?"

Doyle watched the boys jump at the strict voice and they turned around and saluted Kimball.

"Our invention failed, sir, madam, um sir!" Gibbins awkwardly said.

"We screwed up!" Allen stated, "We followed the blueprints you gave us but well, something went wrong."

"Your blueprints?" Doyle questioned, "Kimball, what is going on?"

"One of our inventors from the early days of the war made many weapon blueprints, as you can see, one of them was a giant magnet," Kimball explained, taking the blueprints off Gibbins' and Allen's table and handing it to Doyle, "At the time we didn't have the right generator but you guys do."

Looking from the blueprints to the generator, Doyle asked, "Where did you get the generator in the first place?"

"Oh you know," Gibbins casually says, "A wall."

"Yeah," Allen chirped in, "All we had to do was take the generator out of the wall and um," he trailed off and looked at his friend, "How did we even do that? It was stuck."

"You took a generator out of a wall," Doyle repeated, doubting whatever the significant of the magnet is, "Kimball, why do we even need a giant magnet?"

She shrugged, "Magnets are cool."

"It'll be cooler if we have armor that came with polarity," Gibbins muttered.

"Hey, super speed sounds really awesome, too, ya know," Allen commented.

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If you know where I got the inventors' names, good for you and they are total dorks.

Thanks for reading!


	4. Nope

It wasn't a surprise for Kimball to see Doyle's office light on late at night.

The security system already acknowledged on her as a friend and let the door slid open for her only to see scattered papers on the desk and a dim light from panel table, displaying a birds' eye view of possible space pirate bases on Chorus.

Across the room, the bullet proof glass doors were pushed to one side, letting the wind from outside drift into the office from the balcony. There at the ledge, gazing over the Capital was Doyle.

Kimball knocked on the glass door, "Hey."

"Hello Kimball," Doyle greeted, he looked over his shoulder, "If you want coffee or tea, there's a pot by my desk."

Moments later, Kimball was at Doyle's side, sipping coffee while he sipped his tea. Neither of them said anything; they simply enjoyed the silence of the night and the peaceful view of the Capital's lights. After all, they didn't know when their last moments will happen.

"Is this a good idea that we're in plain view? We are defenseless right now," Kimball mused, no real panic in her voice, "Perfect for a sniper."

"Well, the general before me chose this exact location for the office to avoid snipers if that reassures you," Doyle looked up at skyscrapers, "Also Epsilon activated the motion trackers for the buildings."

"Yeah, Carolina informed me about that," Kimball nodded, "For some reason, the trackers for the helmets aren't working correctly. Also, did you see some purple light on Epsilon when he was talking about motion trackers?"

"From what I heard from Grey, it's probably Project Freelancer related."

The silence took over again, the wind easing the two with comfort. Kimball nudged Doyle with her elbow, "This is a lot like my radioactive lake back at the caves. Tranquil. It's also radioactive but I wouldn't mind showing you it."

Sighing, Doyle placed his empty teacup on the ledge, "That's assuming that I'm not killed on the way there."

"Doyle, you're not going to be assassinated."

"That's not what I meant," Doyle's grips on the ledge tighten, his knuckles turning white, "One day, I'm going to die. I'm going to die not as a soldier but as a coward! I will die as the worst general of Federal army."

"Doyle, you're a good leader. You have soldiers who respect you." Kimball reassured but he continued, his voice becoming softer.

"I am their leader but I don't see myself as one. I'm not brave or experienced, I'm just the man who ended up with the position," he sighed and continued to spill his misery, "The only sign of success during my time was because of Locus."

Kimball's shoulders slumped down at the memory of Felix's confession, "I thought the same for Felix as well."

Doyle faced her, seeing how the dark circles of insomnia around his eyes matched her own, "Kimball, you've seen from experience on how much of a coward I really am. I can't charge into the battlefield like you and the Reds and Blues." He fanatically waved his hands and shouted, "I even fainted last week when Freckles threatened me when I took the tank keys away from Caboose!" He sighed again, his tone in defeat, "I'm a failure."

There was a beat of silence as Doyle turned away from her, facing the Capital lights but then Kimball simply said, "No."

"No?"

"No," she repeated and grabbed Doyle's shoulder to turn him facing her, "You're wrong Doyle. You're not going to die a coward and you're not a failure. You're a leader, you have faith and honor for your army and in return they believe in you as their leader."

"But I'm a coward. How can a coward be a leader?" Doyle questioned, avoiding Kimball's stern glare.

"Will you stop talking like that?" Kimball crossed her arms and eased her scowl, "I understand your insecurities but what's the point on continuingly doubting yourself?"

Doyle's silence and frown was her answer.

"You and I both know the hardship of being a leader and being a leader also means that it's not always about you," Kimball dropped her arms and poked Doyle's chest, "Like I said, there are soldiers who look up to you and they'll be there for you if you'll be there for them. Fleeing from battle is not the way to win a war," she settled her arms on the ledge and smiled at the dazzling lights of the Capital, "Your army deserves a great leader Doyle and I think that can be you."

Gratefully smiling, Doyle nudged his elbow on her arm, "Thank you Kimball, I think I needed that."

"You're welcome," she smirked, "I'm getting used to telling people to get their crap together in an inspiring way."

Doyle only gave a questioning glance but just laughed it off, "I'll get us more coffee and tea. How do you take your coffee?"

"Cream and five sugars," as Doyle walked inside to the coffee and tea pots, she thought out loud, "I learned from an old mentor of mine that being a leader isn't just a title you carry into battle but a badge you wear constantly," returning with her coffee, Doyle set it next to her and drank his tea and listened, "If you're not performing at your absolute best, then what reasons you do give to others to follow you?"

Kimball drank her coffee as Doyle commented, "You certainly are wise."

She shrugged, "I prefer genius."

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Thanks for reading!


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